In Sunday morning's edition of L'Equipe Chris Froome (Sky) talked about the sacrifice he'd made in this year's Tour in supporting Bradley Wiggins. It could have been different though, had the Kenyan born rider taken up one of a number of contract options laid before him after the Vuelta last year.

Currently riding in second place in this year's race, Froome has been somewhat shackled, having been ordered to support and race for Wiggins. However, during and after last year's Vuelta, where Froome pushed Wiggins down into third place overall, a number of teams, including Garmin, showed more than a hint of interest in signing the rider.

"I tried to convince him to come to our team but he wanted to stay at Sky," Garmin's Jonathan Vaughters told Cyclingnews.

Froome eventually settled for Sky, on a multiple year contract and increased salary.

"We started to talk to him five or six days into the Vuelta, before he'd done anything incredible but as his performance got better and better he just became out of reach financially. It just became unrealistic for me to continue down that path.

"I offered him a contract but as soon as he started doing well at the Vuelta there were tonnes of teams. It was just a case of a being a day late and a dollar short."